


Enumeration

by insanitatem_est_omnia



Category: Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-10
Updated: 2012-11-10
Packaged: 2017-11-18 09:12:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/559306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/insanitatem_est_omnia/pseuds/insanitatem_est_omnia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prowl has gone through every possible outcome for Cybertron now that the war is over, and finds the results unsatisfactory.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Enumeration

**Author's Note:**

> Fandom's reaction to Prowl in IDW's Robots in Disguise has been mixed, with some people going so far to say that Prowl is a Bad Guy now. I think he's just unadaptable and confused. I wrote this before the RID annual (I've been waiting for my AO3 invitation for MONTHS), so the new Starscream development isn't mentioned...

Prowl has gone through ten thousand possible futures for Cybertron and the war in his head since the NAILs started to arrive. Ten thousand and one, he amends as he finishes another calculation.

In all but one, the one where he exposes them, the Decepticons manage to seize control of the government, destroying everything the Autobots believe in and fought for. Destroying most of the Autobots, too. Which means it falls to him to expose them. To prevent the other ten thousand outcomes; to make sure that one outcome where where the Autobots are ok, and where there can finally be peace, is reality once all is said and done. And Prowl will fight to the last centimeter of metal on his chevron and the last gear in his finger to make it happen. Too much is riding on his success, too many lives at risk. The odds of his failure are astronomical and Prowl knows it. So does everyone else, including a good portion of the bots Bumblebee has seen fit to let into talks with him. Because Bumblebee is like that, even if he’s been acting strange lately. He thinks that everyone can get along if they try, and if he makes all the right decisions. Prowl can't quite understand how Bumblebee seemingly doesn’t realize that everybody can't get along, and that he won’t make all the right decisions.

_Outcome #43 is that Bumblebee continues to let Decepticons and NAILs alike into the inner circle, listening to the insidious, untrustworthy voice of Metalhawk and the treacherous voice of Starscream. Eventually, Decepticons outnumber the Autobots in the floundering government. The Autobots realize too late, and when they try to say something the Decepticons execute them for crimes against their fellow Cybertronians._

Prowl won’t let that stand, not only for the final outcome but for the beginning. He’ll admit that his relationship with many of the other Autobots has become strained recently. Indeed, the frustration over their refusals to listen makes him want to break something. He’s working at a handicap. He’s lost one of his best intelligence gatherers, and a close ally; one of the few Autobots who could get him any information he could want as long as there was a body, a witness or a criminal. That’s put him at a handicap that Prowl can only make up through extending himself as far as possible. It’s not his fault that his former allies see that as a failing. He’s doing what he can. He resources are limited, on a planet that’s falling apart while he has no way to hold it together. He’ll use what he has. The others are dedicated to the Autobot cause, and they should understand. Instead, he keeps losing tools. Like Blurr. Prowl isn’t sure what Blurr thinks of him now, isn't really sure what Blurr ever thought of him, but way he looks at Prowl now is new. It’s not anger. Not really. Far from respect. After everything, Prowl wouldn’t have been surprised to see fear, but it’s not that either.

Ok, so that's a lie. Fear isn't something surprising, but fear from Blurr would be a surprise. The former racer had been a Wrecker, and Prowl has seen all the files on the Wreckers. Had designed the Wreckers. Before the war and now, on the racetrack or on the battlefield, Blurr knew no fear. Prowl wished there was some, almost. He was used to fear. Hatred, too, even from some of his fellow Autobots. The way Blurr has treated him since he’d been injured is neither of those. Disgust, Prowl decides. And something close to pity, which is ridiculous.

_Outcome 302: A terrorist plants a bomb in Maccadam’s. Everyone there dies, Autobots and Decepticons. The Decepticon Justice Division is responsible, and feel no regret for the murdered Decepticons, justifying the kills by saying the dead were weak and sharing tables with the enemy. In the end, Cybertron becomes a mass grave instead of a home planet_.

He’s losing allies, but he’s got a few left. Or at least people he can manipulate with words. The ones who pretend that they’re shocked or angry, but they can pretend, or even be shocked, all they want. As long as he can point them in the direction they need to go, Prowl is fine. Arcee is that, in a way. He’s not sure for how much longe; not certain that she won’t soon become a liability. But she’s done what he’s asked so far, for all her words. She’s angry. She’s always been angry. Anger is an extremely easy emotion to manipulate, and Prowl knows enough about Arcee's history to pull at her wiring, already frayed.

_Outcome 501: A ship finally arrives containing a nightmare they believed themselves done with, because the universe is just as threatening as the planet itselfs. Jhiaxus, somehow freed from his captivity, or one of the other menaces that they didn’t put down because Autobots aren’t supposed to kill._

Just as Arcee isn't the only one Prowl has manuevered to his side, though, Blurr isn't the only one that walked out. But at least he can keep a close eye on Blurr, the speedster’s injury slowing him down and the bar taking up most of his attention. Busy is good, in Prowl's eyes. Blurr can’t take his own path when there are a dozen patrons in his bar at any one time.

There are others, though, that are harder for Prowl to keep track of, even with his skills. He knows how to watch a dozen places at once, but despite it being absolutely imperative that he be perfect that doesn’t mean he can be everywhere. The ones that left altogether are the hardest to watch. The ones he's most careful to not let fall through the cracks, while at the same time being the ones he can't follow every second.

_Outcome 2,039: Taking a stand is dangerous when you don’t know what you’re doing, and the Aerialbots are no exception. They can’t leave well-enough alone and try to re-assert themselves. In the resulting chaos of another added faction, the Decepticons unite and make their bid, pointing to the brokenness of the Autobots as the reason they should lead._

The ones that left are a problem. The ones who haven’t decided yet are an even bigger problem, easily manipulated when there’s so much going on. Prowl knows he has to get into the ears and heads of the NAILs, before Starscream, Metalhawk or even Bumblebee. A group with no leader is dangerous, prone to running every direction at once. Fear is his best weapon, hope the second. Feed them what they want to hear, to keep them from running into the deadly jaws disguised behind a kind smile. But with the government heads not doing what they need to, it’s becoming harder. It’s difficult to rally against stupidity.

_Outcome 3,529: The NAILs rebel fter months of the Autobots being pushed against and derailed by indecision and bad leadership, looking elsewhere because they don’t know any better. Bumblebee refuses to do what’s necessary and refuses to let Prowl do it, either. Without anyone to pull the trigger and stop them, the NAILs turn to the Decepticons and a bloodless coup becomes a death march for NAIL and Autobot alike._

The external forces aren’t as nearly threatening as the internal, though. Starscream is a screaming siren in Prowl’s head, louder than anything he ever heard blasting through the air. Prowl would send a bullet through the Decepticon’s head in a second if he didn’t think the action would unravel everything he’s put together.

_Outcomes 4,001 through 6,500 all feature Starscream. Somebody important dies in all of them. Every Autobot on Cybertron dies in some of them. Prowl dies first in most of them, because Starscream intimately understands the nature of threat._

For all the contingencies where Starscream destroys everything, there is more than that. There are the unaligned. The ones Prowl can’t trust to act on any interest but their own, the most dangerous interest of all. And there’s one whispering words into Bumblebee’s audials, twisting the Autobot’s perceptions of threats into something less than they are. Prowl is sure there’s more behind Metalhawk's words. The NAILs are as big a threat as the Decepticons, and they’re all poised to strike, regardless of what Metalhawk is trying to say. Optimism is far too dangerous an emotion, and one Metalhawk seems too sharp to genuinely have.

_Outcome 7,419, among others, stars Metalhawk. He is not what he seems, ever, and that puts Prowl on his guard. A single slip by the Autobots and Metalhawk is there to take control, to gain trust among the NAILs and those Decepticons that are tired after the war. But commanding a battalion is nothing like commanding a government. Metalhawk can’t hold what he desired so badly, and the weight of leadership crushes him down until he’s forced to ask for help. With the Autobots disgraced, the only option left is to ask the help of the Decepticons._

Even with so many individuals that could prove to be risk, Prowl knows he can’t ignore the external forces. Those things that could destroy everything without taking action. Those whose very existences prove a threat. The first are the symbols. The very thing Prowl himself tried to build up during the physical combat phase of the war, before it had become this battle of wills.

_In outcome 8,003 the Decepticons take their free reins and start picking off the Autobot war heroes, one-by-one. Ironhide, for all his strange dreams of being the last one standing, is their first target. Others follow until there is nothing left for the Autobots to hold as a hallmark to their cause, and the demoralized troops crumble._

Going further out, there are the inadvertent destructions that could easily come from within the Autobot ranks. The unexpected, which Prowl is making it his business to expect. Wheeljack is coming up with new ideas daily, dangerous in and of themselves, but even more dangerous when the scientist puts them into physical form. The most altruistic of inventions can easily become a weapon in the wrong hands, and the wrong hands are everywhere.

_Outcome 9,740: Wheeljack comes up with a brilliant plan for drawing energy from solar winds that pass over Cybertron, enough to power any machine, including weapons of mass destruction. WMDs are powered, with catastrophic results for the few stable parts of the planet._

As far out as his calculations have gone, at least so far, is Cybertron itself. The planet itself is against them. Prowl is willing to admit there’s not a lot he can do about that except hope that Wheeljack is able to solve any impending geological catastrophes.

_In outcome 9,998 a crater opens up beneath the briefing room. Bumblebee, Wheeljack, Metalhawk and the others die instantly. Starscream, by sheer coincidence, just happens to not be there. He declares it a sign that he should be in charge, and the NAILs, grasping desperately for something to hang onto, believe him._

Then there are the macroscopic possibilities, like the rogue elements and unstableness that had occurred when the Lost Light had become lost to them, or the Cybertronians who had yet to arrive. The ones who, while not bent on destruction, were too naive to accept obvious truths.

Prowl’s calculations have been going in as well as out, though. Looking in only a single direction is dangerous. Inward factors, those closest to the center, were often the most dangerous.

_Outcome 1, 7, 29, 105, 369, 1,002, 1,500, 2,910, 3,000, 3,001, 4,012, 4,321, 5,000, 7,900, 8,001, and 9,997: There’s a possibility that Prowl hasn’t considered everything, and it’s the one thing he missed that destroys all their hard work because he missed a Decepticon plot, or a rogue NAIL, or because he didn’t notice a weapon in the hand of an attendee to one of Bumblebee’s regular speeches. He is the only one to blame in these cases._

And, of course, to properly calculate odds there needs to be something for them to be weighed against. The null hypothesis, in a way.

_**Outcome 0: The Decepticons want peace as badly as the Autobots. The war is over and he’s the only one still fighting it.** _

But the null hypothesis is fiction. Prowl is absolutely certain of that...


End file.
